Rosie grinned at her brother. “I know, they looked horrible.”
“Wait, I still have a picture of it!” Her brother reached for his phone.
“No, Aaron, no need for that,” Rosalie reached to take the phone from him, but he leaned away.
With an easy swipe, I stretched across the table and grabbed it from him. “Nah, I don't want to see it. I want to remember the cupcakes she made for me.”
Rosie's grateful eyes met mine, and I winked at her.
“You just want more cupcakes,” Aaron grumbled after a second of suspiciously eying me.
“I would never say no to that,” I grinned widely and winked at Rosie, who was turning a shade pinker in her cheeks.
“Stop flirting with my sister,” her brother groaned, lethal edge of his voice. “I told you…”
“No one touches your sister, or we die,” Oliver rolled his eyes. “Everyone heard your locker room talk last year, no need for reminders.”
“Now I know why I can’t have a date,” Rosie sighed dramatically. “Did you post it all over school as well as a wanted poster?”
Nova laughed. “No, imagine, it would give them way too much material for those long showers…”
Rosalie gagged, and Aaron looked like he was ready to murder Nova. “The bottom line is no one should flirt with Rosie. Especially not her student.”
Rosie and I exchanged a look over the table, and she bit down on her lip to stop herself from laughing.
“This is the first time I've seen Dex attempt to flirt since the accident,” Max joined the conversation with a grin. “Let him try.”
I stared at my best friend. “Jeez, thanks for the vote of confidence. You make me sound like I'm...”
“Not good at it?” Nova asked from beside me.
“Practice makes perfect, my friend,” Maddox added.
I rolled my eyes, still grinning. I missed my friends, even if they annoyed me. I leaned back in my chair and laughed.
“I will take everything you guys said under consideration,” I nodded my head, my eyes sliding back to Rosie, who was hiding her grin in her glass of water.
I held her gaze for an impossibly long moment, allowing everyone around us to fade into black and imagining it was just the two of us at the restaurant.
Rosie's tongue reached out, and she licked her pink lips as her grin spread wider, and I felt myself harden.
“You know,” Nova leaned in, snapping me out of my staring contest. “You never denied flirting with Rosie.”
“I wasn't attempting to flirt,” I muttered, and watched as Rosie's eyes darkened with masked hurt. “I was actually flirting.”
Nova giggled, and Rosie leaned back in her chair with a satisfied smirk.
That girl was going to be the end of me.
CHAPTER EIGHT
ROSALIE
I watched as Jeremy slid his chair closer to Daisy and they shared a laugh. My friend looked happy, her cheeks flushed, and it was rare for her to wear a smile that reached her eyes.
We all sat in the café, and while I nursed my hot chocolate for a change, they shared two different cheesecakes, reminding me of how sad I was sitting there staring at my homework.
My class load was piling up, and skipping most classes that didn't have a mandatory attendance wasn't fun. I was playing catch-up just to get annoyed and skip all the classes again. It was a vicious cycle.
